Clearing up some common misconceptions.

[ThatLankyBastard]

Just because someone is a furry does not mean they think some dogs are sexy... there is a fine difference between imagination and real life.

...this is also applied to Lolicon. if someone's into it, chances are they still aren't a pedo...

My misconception isn't nearly as complex or important as other-poster's (and it probably isn't as big a problem on this site) but I get a lot of shit from this in real life...

Also: Atheist does not mean Anti-Religious...

...I get that one a lot IRL too

 

[Lilani]

-snip-

Funny how you make a thread to clear up common misconceptions and you start it out with a sweeping generalization and stereotype without any facts or supporting evidence.

 

[Monkeyman O'Brien]

Ohohooh. I have one for the OP. You seem to be under the misconception that your opinion on others diets matters even a tiny bit. I assure you that not only does it not matter but it is none of your fucking business what other people eat.
So I guess I will lump this all into the misconception people have that their opinions matter.

 

[nklshaz]

Hello fellow Escapists. As the title of this thread suggests, what are some common misconceptions that you would like to clear up? It can be about any topic, just as long as everyone here (Myself included, of course) learns a thing or two.

I'll start. I know this one applies to other nations, but I'm going to direct it at my own, because I know for a fact that we are guilty of it.

My fellow Americans, you do NOT need to eat an entire fucking cow every day! Seriously, I'm amazed by how much people over-consume meat in this country. I have no moral stance against eating meat, but damn, most people I see eat WAY too much. This wouldn't be so bad, but the average American doesn't eat enough fruits or vegetables either. I don't know why, but people here in America always seem to be concerned about not getting enough protein. (And trust me, we're in no danger of it) Hell, most fruits and vegetables taste damn good too, so I' m surprised that people here don't eat more of them.

Your turn Escapists. Please, educate us. Have a nice day

Common misconception:

That I, in my infinite wisdom, know what is better for another human being than they do. **I** am the one to determine how much meat, alcohol, sex, cocaine, religion, or porn is "too much" - that I can somehow define acceptable consumption for another.

I see that misconception a lot in America.

To clarify, I was defining "too much" by general national health guidelines, not by personal opinion or preference. Nor was I judging them, merely observing. Now please, you can be as snarky as you want, but at least make an effort to post something interesting, especially if you're going to quote me directly. The Escapist has loaded rather slowly for me since the layout change, so checking my inbox has become a bit of a pain in my ass. Please, at least try to make it worth my time. Thank you.

OT: Napoleon was not particularly short, and bubblegum doesn't take seven years to digest. True, it isn't exactly digestible, but it moves through your system at roughly the same rate as other foods.

 

[ThePS1Fan]

I am neither Sheldon Cooper nor a robot. While this mostly applies to people who know me IRL, it gets annoying after the fiftieth time someone says "You know who he reminds me of... Sheldon!".

Yeah I get that a lot too.

OT, this video clears up 10 so yeah...
Also fundamental misconception is my favourite thing to say for some reason.

 

[evilneko]

The FBI is NOT going to "shutdown the internet" on March 8 or any other date. They are shutting down bogus DNS servers formerly run by a half-dozen criminals who created the DNSChanger trojan. Also, it's no longer happening on March 8, [http://thehackernews.com/2012/03/fbi-get-4-more-months-to-fight-with.html] it'll be happening on July 9. The hackers were taken down a long time ago, and the FBI's been babysitting the servers ever since, but since being an ISP isn't exactly their job, they're gonna shut 'em down. The only reason they maintained them was how widespread DNSChanger was (read: people with deep pockets would be affected).

To find out if your computer is using the doomed servers, visit http://dns-ok.us/

 

[nklshaz]

-snip-

Funny how you make a thread to clear up common misconceptions and you start it out with a sweeping generalization and stereotype without any facts or supporting evidence.

Funny how you post on a thread about clearing up misconceptions without actually clearing up any misconceptions. I said what I said based on observations of my environment, and anything applying to other areas of the country was based on national averages found in studies. Granted, studies and averages may not be much better than sweeping generalizations, but short of traveling across the country and watching everyones eating habits, I don't exactly have any other sources of information on the subject. Now please, could you at least make another post that actually clears up a misconception. I don't think it to be that much to ask, considering that its the point of the thread :/

OT: Contrary to the popular myth, humans do not use only 10% of our brains.

 

[nklshaz]

Ohohooh. I have one for the OP. You seem to be under the misconception that your opinion on others diets matters even a tiny bit. I assure you that not only does it not matter but it is none of your fucking business what other people eat.
So I guess I will lump this all into the misconception people have that their opinions matter.

. . . isn't that technically your opinion?

Anyway, when I said that they eat "too much", I meant in accordance to general health guidelines, not personal opinion. I'm not judging them for eating so much meat, I was just surprised by it, since I hadn't noticed it until recently.

OT: Bats are not actually blind.

 

[SD-Fiend]

Firstly because it fits just a little bit:


also religion does not equal anti-science/education. You know the guy that pretty much figured out how DNA works? Gregor Mendell? he was a monk

 

[Lilani]

-snip-

Funny how you make a thread to clear up common misconceptions and you start it out with a sweeping generalization and stereotype without any facts or supporting evidence.

Funny how you post on a thread about clearing up misconceptions without actually clearing up any misconceptions. I said what I said based on observations of my environment, and anything applying to other areas of the country was based on national averages found in studies. Granted, studies and averages may not be much better than sweeping generalizations, but short of traveling across the country and watching everyones eating habits, I don't exactly have any other sources of information on the subject. Now please, could you at least make another post that actually clears up a misconception. I don't think it to be that much to ask, considering that its the point of the thread :/

OT: Contrary to the popular myth, humans do not use only 10% of our brains.

Singular observations don't clear up misconceptions. Perhaps you just happened to be observing in a place where meat consumption is high, I'm sure it fluctuates depending on location. It might be more or less expensive in some places than others, or the tastes of the locals might sway one way or the other.

But wait, you've got national averages found in studies? Great, that's all I wanted in the first place. Show them to me. Fun fact: I'm from Missouri, also known as the "show-me" state, because we like to be shown things and see them with our own eyes rather than just believe what we're told.

And because you got all grouchy and wouldn't clear up your own misconception the last time I didn't do it, here, I'll clear up a misconception. People think that all Americans love beef. That is not true, I'm not really a fan of it. I'll eat Italian beef or beef in meatballs or pasta, maybe tacos if I've got no other choice, but I don't like steak or burgers. I much prefer chicken, pork, and turkey.

 

[Tiger Sora]

Also, gravity is F'ing weak (compared to the other forces at least). Not sure I have actually see that as something misconstrued, but it seems like it might be just because it is one of those things.

I'd think theres without a doubt a misconception over the power of gravity. (Well there has to be people that think it's weaker than the others, and probably other things they think.
But my answer. Black Hole, gravity so high not even light can escape. Thats rather powerful eh.

Man isn't the most warmongering creature on earth. Ants are.
(Not all ants are but ya).

 

[chexlltim]

A common misconception is that you need faster-than-light travel to reach other galaxies in one person's lifetime.

Because of relativistic length contraction, this is not necessarily the case. By accelerating at the reasonable rate of 1g, and starting to decelerate at 1g after the midway point, you could reach the andromeda galaxy, 2 million light years away, in less than 30 years.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/rocket.html

But doesn't that article say that most of the time you'll be travelling at near light speeds?
I also can't follow the math so would that be 30 years for the astronauts or the rest of us?

 

[isometry]

A common misconception is that you need faster-than-light travel to reach other galaxies in one person's lifetime.

Because of relativistic length contraction, this is not necessarily the case. By accelerating at the reasonable rate of 1g, and starting to decelerate at 1g after the midway point, you could reach the andromeda galaxy, 2 million light years away, in less than 30 years.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/rocket.html

But doesn't that article say that most of the time you'll be travelling at near light speeds?
I also can't follow the math so would that be 30 years for the astronauts or the rest of us?

It would be 30 years for the astronauts. And yes, they would spend most of the journey traveling near light speed - the point is that they don't need to go "faster than light" to get there quickly.

 

[nklshaz]

-snip-

Funny how you make a thread to clear up common misconceptions and you start it out with a sweeping generalization and stereotype without any facts or supporting evidence.

Funny how you post on a thread about clearing up misconceptions without actually clearing up any misconceptions. I said what I said based on observations of my environment, and anything applying to other areas of the country was based on national averages found in studies. Granted, studies and averages may not be much better than sweeping generalizations, but short of traveling across the country and watching everyones eating habits, I don't exactly have any other sources of information on the subject. Now please, could you at least make another post that actually clears up a misconception. I don't think it to be that much to ask, considering that its the point of the thread :/

OT: Contrary to the popular myth, humans do not use only 10% of our brains.

Singular observations don't clear up misconceptions. Perhaps you just happened to be observing in a place where meat consumption is high, I'm sure it fluctuates depending on location. It might be more or less expensive in some places than others, or the tastes of the locals might sway one way or the other.

But wait, you've got national averages found in studies? Great, that's all I wanted in the first place. Show them to me. Fun fact: I'm from Missouri, also known as the "show-me" state, because we like to be shown things and see them with our own eyes rather than just believe what we're told.

And because you got all grouchy and wouldn't clear up your own misconception the last time I didn't do it, here, I'll clear up a misconception. People think that all Americans love beef. That is not true, I'm not really a fan of it. I'll eat Italian beef or beef in meatballs or pasta, maybe tacos if I've got no other choice, but I don't like steak or burgers. I much prefer chicken, pork, and turkey.

Perhaps I should state this a little more clearly, the misconception I'm referring to is the amount of meat people in my immediate environment think they need to eat per day. I asked most of my friends and family, and their answers tended to range anywhere from 8 to 12 ounces per day. The generalization born from the information I found was what I aimed at the rest of the country, which I have no way of observing. Simply put, the misconception I was clearing up was a tad more local than it should have been, considering the title of the thread. Perhaps calling them "common" misconceptions was a poor choice of words on my part, but oh well. As for the studies; As embarrassing as this is, I've been posting these from my phone, and I have no idea whatsoever how to hyperlink or cut and past from this thing. This wouldn't be a problem, but I'm currently on the road, and without access to a computer, so your links will have to wait a few days. If you don't want to wait, a few google searches could probably satisfy your curiosity. But be warned, it's not a very interesting subject. Hell, I was bored with it even as I made this thread, it was just the most immediate thing to come to mind.
Oh, and you're from Missouri? Greetings from Iowa then. Hooray for adjacency!

OT: Bulls are not actually enraged by the color red, but rather by the movement of the cape. ( Referring to bullfighting )

EDIT: Oh yes, and sorry for getting grouchy earlier. Trying to coherently type out walls of text while my friend refuses to stop singing along to the radio isn't exactly great for my mood. It explains it, but doesn't excuse it, so sorry about that.

 

[phage83]

misconception that all anti gay people hate the people that are gay, yes a lot of people do hate gay people with the lifestyle but some of the people don't like the lifestyle but will and do accept the person. i don't agree with that lifestyle but i have had several friends that where gay. I will not and hate the people that get up and do anti gay marches and camp outside funerals. just my two cents



Captcha: graveyard shift

 

[EV777]

One of the most widespread (and very socially paralyzing) misconceptions is that people are naturally/genetically/evolutionarily programmed to be totally aggressive/competitive/selfish etc. Too many people hold this very oversimplified and false view of human behavior, or as they call it "Human Nature". The Nature vs. Nurture debate itself is a cop-out to understanding the true and complex bio-psycho-social condition of human beings, and the role of environment in determining human behavior.

I have to address the misconceptions of Social Darwinists and other people that believe in the notions of "survival of the fittest". Darwin never said that, Natural Selection states that the organism that is best suited to survive is the one that is best able to adapt to it's environment, and for us as we were evolving meant something much different than being competitive and aggressive.

Studies of the earliest human societies (hunter-gatherer tribes)showed that we lived in small, egalitarian communities based on food-sharing and gift exchange. Our ability to survive depended not on being stronger or smarter than anybody else in the tribe, but rather is depended on our ability to work together. To put it simply: We are not solitary animals, we are social creatures and we evolved as so because our survival depended on it. Our evolution promoted many different things in us, and among those things were co-operation, sociability and compassion for each other.

Given these understandings, I return to my original point in that human behavior is extremely complex and depends upon factors too numerous to track. Another big reason why we survived to dominate the planet is our ability to adapt, and thus we are capable of developing in so many different ways to produce different behaviors. I just wanted to address the problems of both A) misconceptions of human evolution and B)over-simplification of human behavior. Like I said we are bio-psycho-social creatures and interacting factors which shape our lives are so complex that I believe every person must be examined individually on a case-by-case basis in order to understand why they developed the way they did.

Anyways, I really just want to say that all those people saying "Omg things will never change because people are inherently greedy and evil!!!" are stupid and don't know what they're talking about.

 

[EV777]

misconception that all anti gay people hate the people that are gay, yes a lot of people do hate gay people with the lifestyle but some of the people don't like the lifestyle but will and do accept the person. i don't agree with that lifestyle but i have had several friends that where gay. I will not and hate the people that get up and do anti gay marches and camp outside funerals. just my two cents



Captcha: graveyard shift

Could you tell me what exactly the "gay lifestyle" is? I wasn't aware that being homosexual dictated other areas of your life and personality outside of your sexuality.

 

[triggrhappy94]

I know I'm going to get people bitching at me for this but...

The initial study done by the EPA saying that second hand smoke is deadly was thrown out of federal quart.
The initial study done by (some short dead dude) that said that drinking alcohol kills brain cells involved pouring strong, if not pure alcohol, directly onto brain cells, which is enough to kill almost any kind of cell. Not to mention, if you're blood ever got that strong you'll have other a lot more things to worry about.

While I'm at it I'll post the links to these...
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legends_about_illegal_drugs
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_misconceptions

 

[phage83]

im sorry if i offended you and im not very good in english so i apologias.

 

[Blade1130]

Programming isn't very math intensive...a lot more logic and problem solving...IDK about others, but to me it's like a big puzzle. But due to the amount of logic and equations involved, the sort of person who is good at math is usually good at programming...but really, I haven't used anything in programming beyond 2nd year algebra.

Maybe I'm being pretentious but I just want to throw out there that while you are right and programming is no where near as math intensive as people seem to think, every now and then you do need higher math. I worked on a remake of asteroids not too long ago, that required the unit circle and physics equations, both of which are above Algebra 2. Also I wanted to get a ball to bounce off of a circle correctly, doing that required calculus to determine the tangent line of the circle, with a bunch of trigonometry and vectors to reflect it off that line. I only bring this up because I had to go apologize to my Calc teacher, since I had said previously that the practical applications of calculus simply never come up in real life.

Again, I'm not saying your wrong, because you are right. It's just that every now and then a situation does come up. I still haven't found a use for integrals though...

Also, gravity is F'ing weak (compared to the other forces at least). Not sure I have actually see that as something misconstrued, but it seems like it might be just because it is one of those things.

If memory serves me correctly (which it doesn't), the gravitational constant is 6.67E-12, while the electro-magnetic constant is 9E9, so while that doesn't necessarily mean that gravity is stronger than E&M, that's just sort of an example of how much bigger it is. Also, while I am not really familiar with the Strong / Weak Nuclear Forces, my understanding was that the Weak one prevents electrons from colliding with the nucleus of their atom, (meaning it is stronger than the E&M force pulling the two together) and the Strong force keeps the nucleus of an atom in place (meaning it is also stronger than the E&M force pushing the particles apart). From that I would say that gravity is the weakest, though again, I've only taken 2 Physics classes, I really don't know what I'm talking about.